Aircraft currently include one or more seat assemblies for supporting passengers in the aircraft during flight. The seat assembly includes a seat cushion securely mounted to the floor of the aircraft by a riser or support base and a seat back pivotally coupled to the seat cushion for providing pivotal reclining movement of the seat back relative to the seat cushion for passenger comfort. The seat back is selectively pivotal between a generally upright TTL (taxi, take-off, and landing) position and a rearward fully reclined position. Additionally, it is known to provide a swivel mechanism to allow the seat assembly to rotate about a vertical axis relative to the support base and a slide mechanism to allow the seat assembly to move fore and aft or laterally relative to the support base to also provide passenger comfort, function, and selective adjustability.
However, aircrafts during flight typically fly with an angle of inclination of approximately 3 to 4.5 degrees from horizontal. Such an angle of inclination often makes it difficult for the passenger to overcome the force imposed by the angle of inclination to manually return the seat assembly from a reclined position to the TTL position or move the seat assembly fore and aft by the slide mechanism or swivel mechanism.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an in-flight leveling system which selectively positions the seat assembly in a horizontally level position in relation to the angle of inclination of the aircraft to assist the passenger in returning the seat assembly to the TTL position. Other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.